Designing a workplace experience to answer: ‘Why should I go into the office?’
March 05, 2024
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Rethinking the workplace as a user experience yields different results
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This article appeared in Design Quarterly Issue 20 as “Why should I go into the office?”
It’s time to rethink the office, not just as a commodity of physical space but as a user experience.
We are back at the office. But we expect more from the office now. We know being in-office has some advantages over the home, so we need to define and accentuate those benefits. The new workplace should offer people places optimized for work. It should provide opportunities to be social. For years, the conversation about the workplace experience revolved around program—the quantifiable measure of what’s in the space that helps people get their work done. And today, when we talk about drawing more personnel to the office, the conversation often still veers that way. Programmatic offerings—the mix of private offices and open offices, the number of conference rooms and collaboration spaces with technology, and amenities—are an important topic, especially when it comes to real estate spending.
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Designing for a user experience requires thinking about the quality of light, the technology, the acoustics, and the ergonomics. (Confidential Technology Client in Chicago, Illinois.)
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But we shouldn’t be so hasty to dive into the programming aspect of offices: its workstations, filing cabinets, and organizing space needs to achieve optimum square footage per person for a budget model. That’s an outmoded approach.
We should pivot to people first in the workplace experience.
We need to start with the user experience and ask deeper questions.
What does it feel like to be here? What do you do when you’re in the office? What would it look like if we could build a space around human activity and considerations such as the whole self, the work, the environment, the organization, and the people? Taking a user experience (UX) design approach to the workplace reveals a different set of user needs and fresh solutions. That’s how we answer the question: why would I go into the office?
How can we look at the office as a UX?
We create a day-in-the-life model.
To develop the user experience perspective, we look at the experience at an individual level. User experience is not just about the user interface or the functionality of the space. It includes the whole journey that users take from before they arrive at the workplace to well after they have left. We explore the different roles that people play in an organization and how they spend a typical day at work. We peek into their schedules and examine their tasks and priorities.
Calendars, for example, reveal that in-office days often are hectic and without the space to support function, technology, or tasks. This leads to stress and decreased productivity. Then, we must ideate about the environmental qualities and attributes they need to support each facet of their role. What types of places are available for well-being, respite, and socialization? Or learning, mentorship, and collaboration? Are there places for heads down work or all-day back-to-back calls?
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The office should include “anywhere spaces” that adjust to our needs. We should think about the settings and the technology that let us change our sensory experience with the greatest ease. (Gartner Mid-Atlantic Center of Excellence in Arlington, Virginia.)
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How do we energize space to create a more sensory experience?
The five senses. We experience space through our sense of sight, sound, smell, touch, and (in the office café) taste. And those sensations, good or bad, can make or break happiness and productivity when we’re in the workplace. If we think about the environment and how it makes people feel—not just how it functions, helps, or hinders—we get a richer idea for what the space can be. How do we create environments that can respond to sensory overload and offer a measure of control? Or, conversely, how do we energize space to create a more sensory experience if the situation or task calls for it? If we can make people feel much more comfortable and in control, is that enough to entice them back to the office more often? Here are a few areas of the workplace that benefit from a user experience perspective.
What does the entry, engagement, and exit experience feel like? We need to consider how the whole UX is affected by the factors that lead us to our workspace: from commuting, parking, scanning, entering, navigating to our floor, and finding a place to sit. And leaving at the end of the day. I want to be able to go into the office easily. Seamlessly. Effortlessly. And do it as if I didn’t even have to think about it. How can we make this happen? Is there one access card? Two cards? Can I use my phone? Can I use my watch to get in there? Maybe. Or maybe I don’t need any of those things and I can use my face to access everything.
Mobility, privacy, sound, and scent. Can I move around when I’m at the office, or is it convenient to stay where I am? Do I need to gather my laptop, my work phone, my personal phone, my other things with me every time I need to change scenery? Can I control the amount of sound or privacy that I want? It might be important for us to hear others and build mentor relationships during our day. Can I dial it down to focus? Music affects each of us differently, it can influence our mood, our concentration. Wouldn’t it be great if I could connect via Bluetooth to the sound system in the room to play the music that I desire to be productive? Does the smell of coffee wake me up or does the scent of bergamot and citrus calm me down? What if we use aromatherapy to enhance the sensory experience during the day to support productivity?
" }For years, the conversation about the workplace revolved around program—the quantifiable measure of what’s in the space that helps people get their work done.
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UX requires a multidisciplinary approach. Taking this sensory approach to user experiences focuses us on the attributes of space that make up that workplace experience. It includes the quality of light, the technology, the acoustics, and the ergonomics. So, it follows that designing for the user’s workplace experience requires us to collaborate closely with our experts and engineers in acoustics, lighting, technology, and climate control. We can weave lighting, acoustics, temperature, and layer in technology to provide options that range from lively to contemplative.
Creating a seamless workplace experience
What if we can provide smooth and seamless digital experiences?
Most of us use laptops to work anywhere, but we often must carry more than that. Toting our tech around and connecting to the audio and visual systems in different rooms—through various technology platforms—does not always feel liberating and often becomes frustrating. We must seek better alternatives from a user experience perspective.
If we want to be truly mobile, and create a purpose-driven work environment, how can we make it easy for ourselves? Maybe we need “anywhere spaces” that adjust to our needs. We should think about the settings and the technology that let us change our sensory experience with the least number of interfaces. When we make technology easy and match the environments to the user personas, more people will use them.
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It's important to design the workplace experience with our senses in mind. So, how do we create environments that can respond to sensory overload and offer a measure of control? (DCP Midstream in Houston, Texas.)
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Data and artificial intelligence in the workplace
AI and data will play a role in the new workplace. These tools will inevitably inform our solutions, space plans, and even our client’s real estate decisions. But before we can utilize AI or any other data-driven approach, we must think about that user workplace experience.
Human factors such as how we perceive ourselves and interact with others in the work setting influence the UX. AI can augment this interaction but not replace it. Especially in this era of hybrid work and choice, we should focus on people, place, and how they interact—the different attributes of space that comprise that user experience. Simply stated, when we use the UX lens, we see things differently, naturally. We put people at the center of design, and we arrive at different and unique solutions. If “why should I go into the office today?” is the question, user workplace experience design has the answers.
We put people at the center of design, and we arrive at unique and beneficial solutions.
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